Mapping the path

California Baseball: Day 1

Stockton Ports

Danny and I headed east for Stockton from our Bay Area home. I was giddy and talkative, thrilled to be on this big journey after months of intense planning. Danny seemed happy, taking “B-roll” video of the surrounding hills as we crossed the Altamont Pass.

Our first ballpark — Banner Island Ballpark, home of the Stockton Ports — was just an hour away, but we had left early enough to cope with rush-hour traffic. The pass is the major release valve for Silicon Valley workers returning home to more affordable neighborhoods to the east, a slog that can take two hours or more each way. It was packed again on this Thursday, baking under an insistent sun on what had been the hottest day of the year — 104 degrees in Stockton. We passed giant windmills and grazing cattle, coasting along with thousands of others, a stream of gleaming metal trickling slowly into the Central Valley.

Banner Island Ballpark (officially “Stockton Ballpark”) is located on a downtown inlet extending east from the San Joaquin River. It got its name from a huge American flag hung there during the Civil War by a Union supporter. The area is no longer an island, but the ballpark does come right up to the water along the outfield. The $22 million stadium opened in 2005 and was built concurrently with the Stockton Arena as part of a waterfront revitalization project. It’s an average-sized ballpark for the California League, seating 4,200 with space for 1,000 more fans on the grass berm in right field called Home Run Hill.

Stockton baseball goes back to the 1860s and is famous for its claim as the inspiration for Ernest Thayer’s poem, “Casey at the Bat.” Thayer is said to have covered the Stockton team for the San Francisco Examiner in 1887, the year before he wrote the poem, and the Banner Island area was home at the time to a baseball club representing Stockton — a town that had several nicknames, including “Mudville.” The Stockton Ports even renamed their team the Mudville Nine during the 2000 and 2001 seasons to commemorate the area’s connection to baseball history.

We were in Stockton to see a California League game between the Class A-Advanced Ports (a minor league affiliate of the Oakland Athletics) and the San Jose Giants (a San Francisco Giants affiliate). Stockton was a charter member of the California League when it launched in 1941, changing their name from the Flyers to the Ports when the league resumed operations following World War II. They have since won 11 league titles, most recently in 2008. As with most minor league teams, they have been affiliated with a long string of Major League Baseball teams, including the Chicago White Sox, St. Louis Browns, Chicago Cubs, Baltimore Orioles, St. Louis Cardinals, California Angels, Seattle Mariners, Milwaukee Brewers, Cincinnati Reds, Texas Rangers, and now the Oakland A’s.

Both the Ports and Giants came into the contest with a record of 28-34, well behind the league-leading Visalia Rawhide in the California League North, but the rivalries between teams at this level are typically less important than the future stars on display. Class A-Advanced (or “High A”) is a level below AA but above A-ball, Short-Season A-ball (or “Low A”), and the Short-Season Rookie leagues. Players who reach this level have shown considerable promise and are three huge steps away from achieving their dreams. Some will never go further in their baseball careers; others could be with their big-league clubs by September, when rosters are expanded to accommodate young talent.

We arrived when the gates opened in our light t-shirts and athletic shorts and were greeted straight away by Splash, the Ports mascot, who was a pretty good sport for being in a heavy, furry costume in 100-plus-degree heat.

Danny and I turned up the first-base side to see a couple of Ports players taking pitches in a batting cage, finding their groove and making adjustments in the oppressive heat.

We continued walking counter-clockwise around the stadium. I had made notes about a number of concessions to check out, but many of the stations — including, sadly, the one serving their signature deep-fried asparagus — were closed on this Tuesday night. The heat would keep attendance down to just 1,841, but the stadium felt much more sparsely populated, the still air carrying the sounds of individual voices clearly across the ballpark.

We paused briefly in the team store to take in its oasis of air conditioning and admire some of the alternate hats and jerseys worn by the team as special promotions. To honor Stockton’s asparagus industry, the Ports appear as the “Aspara-guys” on Friday home games, sporting a logo with the blue-collar, dock-worker character, 5 O’Clock Dock, gripping a big spear of asparagus.

On other nights, the team plays as Caballos de Stockton, part of Minor League Baseball’s Copa de la Diversión, an effort to honor the culture of Hispanic and Latino communities in the United States, and to bring some of those fans out to the ballpark. In 2019, 72 teams took part in Copa de la Diversión, each wearing colorful uniforms and hats that are some of the most popular merchandise items in the Minors.

We headed back out into the heat and grabbed some dinner at the main concessions stand. I tried the Tangy BBQ Pulled Turkey Sandwich, which was messy but delicious. By the time we settled down for the first pitch at 7:05 p.m., it was 102 degrees. Danny called his girlfriend in Australia to join us via video chat for the start of our baseball extravaganza.

And more of the minors’ top prospects were in the mix. Puk got two outs from the first two batters he faced, but Heliot Ramos, a first-round pick from Puerto Rico and the #77 MLB prospect overall, homered to right-center. Ramos would hit .369 in 2019 with 16 HRs and 55 RBI in stints with the San Jose Giants and AA Richmond. Puk then struck out Giants catcher Joey Bart — the second overall pick in 2018 — to end the inning. Bart would also make it to Richmond that year, hitting .316 in 22 games.

Ramos’ home run would be the only hit surrendered by Puk, who finished his two innings with four strikeouts and a walk. After just three games in Stockton, the left-hander would work his way through the minors in 2019 — through AA Midland and AAA Las Vegas — finally appearing in 10 games with the A’s during their playoff run, and compiling an encouraging 3.18 ERA.

Each time the 6’7” Puk left the mound, a much taller man pitching for the Giants took his place. At 6’11”, Sean Hjelle was the #3 pitching prospect in the Giants organization, and looking to become only the third man at his height to reach the majors (the other two being Jon Rauch and Randy Johnson). Hjelle put in a good performance against the Ports, giving up two runs in six innings, but he left the game down 2-1. He would go on to pitch 14 games for San Jose in 2019 with a 2.78 ERA before earning a promotion to AA Richmond.

Luzardo took over for Puk, throwing three smooth, scoreless innings for the Ports. He too would make just three appearances in Stockton and would finish an outstanding year in Oakland, giving up just two runs in 12 innings for the big-league club.

After seeing the big prospects pitch their innings, we decided to take another walk around the park to enjoy a gorgeous sunset full of “baseball skies.”

It was “Barks ‘n’ Brews Night, when dogs are welcome in specified sections of the park. I can personally attest that they were all very good dogs on this scorching summer evening.

We continued out past the lawn seating in right field to take a look at the delta inlet known as McLeod Lake, the setting sun reflecting golden light off the buildings across the way and on the water below.

We reached center field and were presented with a gift of color and clouds and light. Out here, where the the pop of the catcher’s glove and the thwack of foul balls are but distant puffs of sound; here, in the verdant stillness of the outfield grass, facing the oranges and purples of another fading day; here was a perfect moment, where my love for baseball and traveling and the beauty of the natural world all clicked into place in a feeling of pure joy and gratitude. And all on Day 1.

The Giants scored two in the top of the 7th to take the lead, thanks in part to the contributions of another former first-round pick, Courtney Hawkins, who had two hits in the game. Originally drafted in 2012, Hawkins was looking to restart his career after being released by both the White Sox and Reds.

The Ports answered in the bottom of the 7th with two runs of their own, stringing together two singles, a walk, and two hit batters to retake the lead. We finished our circuit of the park and found ourselves behind a group of scouts, notepads on their laps, radar guns fixed on the action.

The game ended quietly, with the Ports beating the Giants 4-3. We headed back to the car and drove home the back way, through the farmland west of Stockton, chatting happily about the many nights of baseball to come.

Highlight Reel

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